Park AK 37 vs Spin Doctor Pro tool set - comparison

Hi all,

I recently was in the market for a bike tool set to start my home maint on my bikes. I was torn between the Spin Doctor Pro tool set (mostly because of price and I have a Performance bike shop near by) and considered the Sette sets from Price Point and the Park AK-37 set. Here are some examples of thing I noticed when comparing the two sets: The Spin doctor chain break tool set has a plastic handle that you twist - Park is solid metal. The chain whip is longer and thicker on the Park. The crank tools and freewheel key are a tad bit thicker. This is common knowlege but the Park set is just heavier duty and in the end I'm glad I spent the extra money on Park. The one nice thing about the Spin Doctor set is that it comes with hex keys and the 25 star key. I'm not knocking the Spin Doctor set at all and it would make a very fine set for a home mechanic and you get alot for the money. For me though, I just think that it was so worth the extra money to get the Park set. Hope this helps you if you are in the market for bike tools and looking to save money or not. Good luck with whatever you go with and happy riding.

It's better, but entirely overpriced when all you need is a 12" ruler. From Sheldon Brown:

Measuring Chain Wear
The standard way to measure chain wear is with a ruler or steel tape measure. This can be done without removing the chain from the bicycle. The normal technique is to measure a one-foot length, placing an inch mark of the ruler exactly in the middle of one rivet, then looking at the corresponding rivet 12 complete links away. On a new, unworn chain, this rivet will also line up exactly with an inch mark. With a worn chain, the rivet will be past the inch mark.

This gives a direct measurement of the wear to the chain, and an indirect measurement of the wear to the sprockets:

If the rivet is less than 1/16" past the mark, all is well.
If the rivet is 1/16" past the mark, you should replace the chain, but the sprockets are probably undamaged.
If the rivet is 1/8" past the mark, you have left it too long, and the sprockets (at least the favorite ones) will be too badly worn. If you replace a chain at the 1/8" point, without replacing the sprockets, it may run OK and not skip, but the worn sprockets will cause the new chain to wear much faster than it should, until it catches up with the wear state of the sprockets.
If the rivet is past the 1/8" mark, a new chain will almost certainly skip on the worn sprockets, especially the smaller ones.